Depending on how into the whole Performing Arts Center scene you are, you may know that the “Committee” recently presented their new report (link was weird for me) to the Mayor. It was received poorly by average joe types around town. You can read about the train wreck that is the Arts Center elsewhere. I want to talk about how Patchwork Collective can save Richmond. Full disclosure: the bros from Patchwork are friends of mine and my company did their website. I am speaking totally from my own perspective though and not as a mouthpiece for PC.
The thing that got me thinking was this quote in Snoopy’s second post:
The Landmark Theater, the only venue keeping Richmond from slipping into the dark ages performing arts wise, gets the shaft from the report. This is what angered me the most.
I think what angers me the most is (no disrespect to Snoopy) the commonly held belief that Richmond needs these large government sponsored venues and initiatives to avoid falling into a creative culture black hole. This is simply not true. The folks in charge of Richmond seem to be jonesing for Baltimore’s Inner Harbor — a Shangri-La of planning and foresight. But just look inward Richmond, inward. Inward to Carytown, Libbie and Grove, and Shockoe Bottom. All of these places are popular with the kids these days and have lots of foot traffic, the black gold of retail. All of them grew up out of local business owners working together not from some governmental decision handed down from on high.
We shouldn’t look up to Mayor Wilder in his throne among the clouds and expect him to materialize a true and vibrant scene for us mere mortals. Amazing things happen when people — not government — get involved. History bears this out.
Jazz, a music birthed from slavery and forged in communities that suffered during Reconstruction, knows something of the growing pains Richmond feels. This quintessential American music was created in a time — the early 1900’s — and a place — New Orleans — where the government despised, ignored, and tormented the founders of the Jazz scene. Blacks who had intermarried with French colonists whos skin was too dark were evicted from New Orleans high society. When these musically trained outcasts were forced to live and cooperate with the local slave population Jazz was born. The blossoming of the art form certainly didn’t stop there; Jazz continued to grow in popularity in New Orleans, Chicago, and New York despite a culture that did little to encourage black enterprise.
Creative scenes are born when creative people start doing creative things, not when Governments get involved.
This is how Patchwork Collective can save Richmond. Right here, in our city, is a group innovating, changing, and growing the local music scene. You don’t need a performance hall to hear stunning music in Richmond — it already exists and you are missing it. You don’t need to move to New York, or even go there, to see superior musicians preform live — it’s happening here. In the last year PC has hosted a famously talented clarinet soloist, a ten piece brass band, a twelve piece chamber orchestra, and a world renowned jazz musician. Exactly the type of things the Mayor’s Performing Arts Committee would love (and you would love too, I promise). The Committee’s suggestions will cost you $45 million while PC’s splendid offerings will cost you 5$. Your call though …
Richmond is in the midst of a nascent cultural explosion, and it’s going to happen regardless of what fills in the giant hole on Broad Street. Just like Carytown, Libbie and Grove, and the Bottom the best way to build on what we have now is for people to start working together and getting involved. Ground up people, ground up!
Postscript #1
Patchwork Collective isn’t the only group doing amazing things in Richmond. There are people involved in music, theatre, video, and belly dancing (no joke). I know this. I feel, that if you start with a rich and available music scene a lot of the other creative stuff will fall into place.
Postscript #2
The amount of money the City wants to spend on this project truly is ridiculous. $45 MILLION DOLLARS. I tell you what, give PC 500k$ and in ten years the cultural return on your investment will be a hundred fold of what you would get for $45M and a arts center now.
